Air France La Première A380 to Paris
The best part of the personal escort to the plane is that we completely bypassed the gate counter...
... and boarded thru a private locked door to the F only jet bridge. Sweet.
The A380 La Première cabin is on the lower deck. It is 9 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration with a single seat in row 1. Please and spacious cabin which worked well and afforded great privacy since we were in the middle in row 3 with no one in the window seats and the other 2 passengers in the window seats in row 2. Comfy but dated seats and no where near as elegant and spectacular as the 4 seat 77W cabin.
Our cabin crew was warm and friendly. Strange PDB service as we were offered water only with the door open. Apparently Air France didn't want to pay taxes on the champagne although we were told "we aren't permitted to offer champagne until the doors are closed." Seriously?
As soon as the doors closed, one of our FAs came by with the Bollinger.
Today's wine list. Nothing over top, but reasonable and good middle of the road offerings.
Major oops as I apparently the pics of the menu details. There were four main choices including duck a seafood and a pasta.
And the special of the day, which we both had was the Chicken. It was Mrs. SFO777's first choice but my second as the they ran out of duck (we only have 2 today) despite only 1 passenger being asked to meal choice before us. OK, not sure what that was all about.
Once in the air, our cabin crew prepped for dinner.
And closed the solid curtains separating us from the world for the next 10 hours.
IFE is a far cry from the new 77W version and like the F cabin, really needs to be upgraded and refurbished.
Our First Class Flight Attendant Berglind was friendly and accomodating and provided excellent service.
The amuse bouche of asian veggies, scallop, duck proscuitto and beet and goat cheese was excellent.
There we are...
The pea soup was delicious.
I decided to do some wine tasting tonight and Berdlind was happy to oblige.
The Lobster salad on a bed of melon was wonderful.
Nice fresh salad.
And the star of the night...
... was the chicken.
Absolutely wonderful, poached in chicken broth enhanced with essence of truffle.
Cheese course although not from a cart or tray. With port.
I couldn't decide on dessert, so Berglind insisted that I try both. And the Sauternes.
OK, the caramel lava cake was spectacular.
No mas, no mas. Our beds were made for us on the adjoining window seats, Mrs. SFO777 in 3A and me in 3L
But before my Ambien kicked, I explored the "bar"... meh...
... and took a peek upstairs at Business Class.
Air France has a excellent looking new BEST business class seat in 1-2-1 configuration but not on this plane. The old 2-2-2 doesn't look that attractive to me.
Not sure what the heck this space is supposed to be. Seems like AF couldn't figure it out either and decided to do... absolutely nothing.
All that space and this is best they could do for a Business Class lav??
Back downstairs in First, I slept like a baby for nearly 6 hours and was awakened only by the gentle nudge from Berlind. I went to the lav to change of passed on breakfast.
We landed on time and then took the usual 10 minute scenic route around CDG...
... pulling up next to another A380.
In summary, I love Air France service and our crew was exceptional. But I would not fly on their A380 when I had a choice of the 77W or Lufthansa First. The cabin is simply too dated and too open. With only 4 passengers, the lack of privacy was not a problem. But with a full cabin, it certainly would have been. Also, the single small lav and a small changing room is simply unacceptable for a cabin of this size. Air France can't refurbish this plane soon enough. Fortunately, our September Paris trip is on the 77W both ways.